The invention relates to a subassembly with a housing, in particular to an electric and/or electronic and/or mechanical subassembly. for use in a steering wheel lock, an ignition lock, a door lock or the like in a motor vehicle, or for use in domestic appliances or machine tools.
Electric or electronic subassemblies, including if appropriate those equipped with mechanical elements, having a housing are used, for example, in motor vehicles. A subassembly of this type may be a steering wheel lock located in the vicinity of the steering wheel, an ignition lock, a lock subassembly located in the car door for central locking, or the like. In order to establish the position of the lock, the locking or unlocking position or the like, there are in the subassembly electric switches whose switching signals encode the corresponding position.
The electric switches in the subassembly are generally snap-action or microswitches which are provided with their own switch housing. These switches are arranged inside the housing of the subassembly and are operated via movable actuating elements which act on the operating member of the switch. There are often actuating elements outside the housing, so that further transmission elements have to be articulated to the actuating element, one of these transmission elements in turn being guided into the housing, via an opening made in a housing wall, for the purpose of operating the switch.
It can be seen immediately that an arrangement of this type of additional transmission elements is complicated and susceptible to faults. The interior of the housing must often be protected against the action of moisture, dust and the like, so that sealing means are additionally necessary between the opening in the housing and the movable transmission elements. It has been shown that, in spite of these sealing means, the penetration of pollutants of this type into the housing cannot be completely eliminated. This results in the risk that the subassembly will fail prematurely.
The invention is based on the object of simplifying the operation of an electric switch which is located in the housing of the subassembly by means of an actuating element arranged outside the housing, in particular to achieve good sealing at the opening into the housing using simple means.